Rdio launches in UK and France

Spotify might be building up some momentum in the United States, but it’s easy to forget that Rdio has its own significant streaming presence too. Previously restricted to the US and a handful of other countries, the service is now available in the UK and France starting from today. As always seems to be the case when it comes to international licenses, the content isn’t quite as good as the US version, but it’s better than nothing, right?

Once you sign up for a free Rdio account, you’ll be given 7 days of unlimited listening for free. If you want to keep pumping the tunes after that, you’ll have to pay £4.99 a month for web-streaming, or £9.99 which will include access on mobile devices too. iOS, Android, WIndows Phone 7, and BlackBerry devices are all supported.

The prices are identical to Spotify, the interface is more intuitive and certainly nicer to look at, and the web-client is a nice touch. The problem, as always, is content: right now it’s severely lacking compared to Spotify. If Rdio can continue negotiating the necessary licenses with international distributors, that it could be a nice competitor, but until then, we’ll be sticking with Spotify.